Friday the 13th studio says the game has not been 'abandoned'

YouTube

There was a ripple of panic among Friday the 13th players today when it came to light that developer Illfonic is working on a new project, a "multiplayer first-person zombie shooter set in a post-apocalyptic world" called Dead Alliance. In a statement posted on Reddit, however, studio CEO Chuck Brungardt said that stories about the game being abandoned are "100 percent not true," and explained that Dead Alliance isn't actually a new game at all.

"Most major and independent studios have multiple teams working on multiple projects at the same time. This is critical for the survival of the studio, especially with the ups and downs with the game industry," Brungardt wrote. "Dead Alliance was started way before Friday the 13th: The Game. It was a co-development by Psyop Games and IllFonic then titled Moving Hazard. Psyop Games released Moving Hazard to Steam Early Access well over a year ago and it gained interest from Maximum Games for a console port."

The Moving Hazard/Dead Alliance team has always been separate from the Friday the 13th team, he said, and in fact the Friday the 13th team has grown from about 20 people internally to 30. "We also have opened a second office that sole purpose is to support development of Friday the 13th: The Game. In addition we are continuing to staff up more team members for continued support of the game," he wrote. "So we assure you, continued support for Friday the 13th: The Game has not been abandoned, in fact, it’s quite the opposite."

We actually spoke with Moving Hazard lead writer Christian Cantamessa about the game at PAX South in January 2016, and it hit Early Access a few months later. It's gone now, of course, but Dead Alliance sounds reasonably similar to what Moving Hazard promised: It's a multiplayer FPS in which zombies can be turned against opposing players. It's available for pre-purchase now for $25/£20/€25 on Steam, and slated to launch (in full, not Early Access) on August 29.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.